March 2017

We had a very mild winter in Houston, which lead to an early spring.

Spring means lots of days at the park.  This kid takes the shorts-under-the-skirt thing seriously, even if the shorts are longer than the skirt.  I'm not complaining!

Spring also means sick kiddos.  They love to lay with their mama when they don't feel good.

Or they feel fine, but take over my bed anyway.

Arden had a role in the Second Grade play called Bugz.  she was bug #17. 

  

Her line: "But how are we to get there?  I ask with all my might.  The city park is far away, it's bound to take all night."  She was a great Bug #17

Jack talking smack while beating me at checkers one evening.  "I've got the perfect plan!' and "I'm unstoppable!"  And "Queen me!"

Spring time this year also means baseball.

Jack started baseball.  He's on a 4/5 year old team that is coach-pitch.  He joined with a few of his friends from church, Cooper, Rossy, and Dublin.

 Jack's very first baseball game.  Here he is waiting to bat.

Poor kid, he struck out both times he was up to bat.  I don't it mattered much to him, though.  It just meant he could head back to the dugout to play with his buds.

Brian is out on the field trying to make all the boys pay attention.  He was stressed by the end of the game because they all have the attention span, well, of a five year old. Jack is next to him on the left.

Good game, good game

And so far the most important thing about baseball is the baseball cap.  He loves to wear it whenever he can.  Here  we  are at the grocery store, which is one of his favorite places to go.  He loves weighing produce on the scale.  We also have a Walmart that has scanners, so he is my scan-man.

February Fun

Halle on Valentine's day.  This year she had a Valentine Beau, Michael.  She got him a present and she also made cookies for her friends at school 

Arden had a Decades Dance at school.  Second graders danced to 90s and 2000s music.  She rocked out to MC Hammer, Kid-N-Play, and One Direction.  Isn't she beautiful?

Brian and I goofing off at the The Potter's Wheel.  We had  a double date with the Spaffords.  I then ate the best chocolate cake ever at Black Walnut. 

masterpieces

Our Movie night with our home projector.  The projector is super rinky-dink, but my kids didn't care.  We watched Trolls and ate hot wings from our cool new air fryer.

Birthday and Anniversary Cruise

Thanks to Papa Mike and Gigi, Brian and I had a chance to get away with two of our favorite  couples, and go on a cruise!  The cruise was to celebrate Brian's 40th birthday, our 15th wedding anniversary, Crystal's birthday, and Crystal and Nik's wedding anniverary. The Vowell's were there too!

We had a ton of fun.  Probably too much fun.

I like big boats and I cannot lie.  Sir Mix a Lot would be proud.

Brian needed a  shirt too, so I photoshopped  one for him

The first night we just hung out at Red Frog.  I sorta taught Adam how to play chess.

Sarah, whatcha doin?

This picture sums up the night.  Crystal's crossfit classes came in handy for this pose.  Crystals stance with my granny panties peaking out crack me up every single time.  The best picture ever! I think I'm going to blow it up and put it over my fireplace.

In Cozumel we visited Mr. Sancho's.  Pool side bar, beach chairs, unlimited food and drinks.  Brian was the highlight of this day.  Oh my.  Let's just say he and the bartender became good friends.

us on the beach

Brian in the water singing Margaritaville over and over at the top of his lungs.  This is before he decided to go for a swim out to sea.

This is Brian mingling and toasting everyone, "Cheers, I'm 40!"

Us all next to the really cool bar that had swinging chairs instead of bar stools.

Crystal, the rebel, can't take her anywhere

laying pool side just enjoying the day.

Some other pics from the cruise.

about to get our grub on

Adam, too cool for school

us looking for flying fish along the boat's side.  Nik needs a pony tail for his beard.  

Sarah and Adam on the Lido deck I think.  or maybe at the casino.

us all together on our balcony.

Our four day cruise turned into a five day cruise because of huge swells.  The boat had to reroute and the water was extremely choppy.  They put barf bags by all the elevators and it was hard to just walk down the hallway.

our worried and nauseous faces.  No worries, we made it home.

There's a lot we didn't take pictures of, like the super awesome 80's trivia  dance party and the dancers at the shows.  We had a blast and  I can't wait to go again!

Call the Fire Department, this one's out of control!

Seriously though, look at all those candles!

Happy 40th birthday to Brian and here's to the WORST cookie cake ever made in history.  I wanted to get Brian a cookie cake from Great American Cookie Company, but we ran out of time that day.  So I ran into Kroger and got the "freshest" cookie cake I could find.  Oh my word, that thing practically disintegrated  when we cut into it because it was sooooo dry.

 The Hargraves will usually eat cake no matter what, but we didn't even finish a quarter of this cake, which tells you how bad it was. 

With a cake that dry and all those candles, I'm sure if it stayed lit too long, the house would  have burned down. ;)

Girls Days

A couple of months we girls like to have day out.  We usually eat out at a restaurant and then watch a movie. This particular outing we ate at Panera Bread, Arden's third favorite restaurant behind Cici's and Macayos.  She loves Panera Bread for the chicken noodle soup, which is not surprising since she loves chicken Ramen noodles.  But, at Panera Bread, she just drinks the broth.  So I'm like, "Dude eat some of those noodles and chicken!  I just paid $9 for that bowl.  I'm not gonna pay $9 for just chicken-water!"
We then did some shopping on Market Street and saw a movie.  For the life of me I can't remember which movie I saw.  Maybe Sing? Since I suck at blogging lately this has been too long ago for me to remember. 
Anyhow, the reason why I am posting about our girls day is mainly to show how well the sisters get along some times.  Lately they have been really sweet to each other and that makes my heart happy.  One day they'll be grown and the age difference (and height difference) will be negligible.  I want them to be best friends and always be there for one another.  

We had a low key New Years Eve.  At first we didn't want to do anything at all, Brian and I, other than just go to a far away place where fireworks weren't allowed past midnight.  But the Greens came over and got us out our pissy pants.  With them they brought New Years Eve inspired Minute to Win It games and Sangria.  It ended being a great night.  



We busted out Arden's cotton candy maker for our NYE party

I think the parents had more fun.  Brian and I argued over who could make the best looking cotton candy

just a selfie of the mamas

Some MTWI game: Throwing the bean bags through the clock holes

suck up an M&M with a straw and place them around a clock

move the top cup from the top to the bottom in the fastest time possible.  It's harder than it looks when you're trying to go fast.









the game where I looked like an old lady.  We had pantyhose tied around our heads with an orange at the end, swinging it and trying to knock over cups.  I couldn't stop laughing.

one of my favorite pictures ever of the Hargreen kids. This is them, all being themselves.

The absolutely cutest picture ever on the face of the planet.  I may have made them kiss each other like a thousand times to get the perfect shot, but they didn't mind because they love each other.  Delaney calls Jack "My Jack"

After midnight came and went we all played with Jakob's fancy Christmas present: virtual reality goggles. Creepy and cool and confusing all at the same time. 

The best part of the night.... it was rainy outside so the fireworks died down right after midnight.  SCORE!!!